Boise Makes List of Top Business-Oriented Cities

12/16/2009
Boise was ranked ahead of Denver, Salt Lake City and Dallas-Ft. Worth as one of the top 10 best cities for business based on results, or by looking at how many companies actually are located in a particular metro region.

This latest listing, made by MarketWatch, an Internet arm of the Wall Street Journal, added more categories – and more cities – to its judging this year than in previous years.

The MarketWatch article says that the ranking doesn’t give a complete picture, though. For instance, having a company headquarters in a particular region – or a large number of firms in a city – doesn’t necessarily mean it’s prosperous.

MarketWatch looked at information such as employment data and population figures, and applied five metrics measures – including how many firms there are per capita – on the most recent Fortune 1000, Forbes Private Companies, S&P 500 and Russell 2000 lists. Additionally, the list attempted to gauge a city’s ability to weather recession – particularly through job losses from September 2008 to September 2009.

The results: #6. Boise, Idaho – 728 points: Another new entry to the top 10, Boise also takes advantage of our extended search; it’s the 85th largest metro area in the U.S.

According to MarketWatch, Boise scored well in virtually all metrics, and might have been closer to the top spot had it not been for the pace of its job losses during the past year.

News tag(s): Business Boise Project_60